Takata airbag recall list

The Takata airbag recall is the largest in US history, affecting 33.8 million cars and trucks made between 2002 and 2011. Manufacturers include Toyota, Honda, BMW, Lexus, Ford, and Nissan.

The official list of affected vehicles continues to grow daily as more makes and models are added. There are two ways to find out if your vehicle is on the list:

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) – Enter the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) or make and model here to find out if there are any open safety-related recalls affecting the vehicle. You can also call the NHTSA safety hotline: 1-888-327-4236. Note that both the NHTSA website and the safety hotline are swamped.

Your dealer – If your vehicle is on the recall list, your dealer will send you a notice. However, if you purchased the vehicle privately, outside a dealership, you are unlikely to get a recall notice from the manufacturer or the previous owner, and you should check the NHTSA site.

Takata airbag recall replacements

Affected vehicles in humid states will be replaced first, since NHTSA believes that humidity or moisture seeping into the airbag propellant canister changes its properties, causing it to explode more forcefully.

Six deaths and more than 100 injuries are blamed on the faulty air bags, which can burst apart with enough force to send metal shards throughout the interior of the car.

Priority states for replacement airbags are the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Florida; plus Missouri, Oklahoma, North and South Carolina and California. That is cold comfort to drivers in snowbelt states, where moisture also can be an issue.

There is no word from either NHTSA or Takata, but you can expect that older vehicles will be recalled first. Older vehicles are likely to have suffered more moisture damage than newer ones, and newer vehicles have additional safety features such as ABS and lane departure warning systems that can help prevent accidents, or minimize their severity.

Takata is speeding up production of replacement parts, but it can be several months before your vehicle is signaled for replacement parts, especially if you live in non-priority states.

Takata airbag safety history

The NHTSA agreement just before Memorial Day with Japanese company Takata doubled the number of cars that could have faulty air bags. The first Takata airbag recall was in 2008, when Honda recalled four thousand vehicles for what was described as a “manufacturer problem”. The safety issue has bounced back and forth between Takata, manufacturers and NHTSA ever since.

Here is the current NHTSA list of the car models affected by the Takata air bag recall, in alphabetical order:

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